An interview by Engage with China Director, H-J Colston-Inge, on Chinese Central TV in October 2022 . She was spotted by a young Chinese student, Jia Lu, in Dongguan in Guangdong Province, southern China, on her school’s News Board. Coincidentally, now 15, Miss Lu had participated in a summer camp organised by Chopsticks Club and held at The Elms School, Herefordshire, in 2019.
H-J spoke about her personal observation over three decades of China’s massive infrastructure development moving from poverty into extraordinary economic growth. The interview was broadcast in October 2022 and featured photographs of H-J as a foreign student on the Great Wall of China and eating the delicacy of Shanghai Crab as well as footage from both work at Engage with China and H-J’s role as Joint CEO of Chopsticks Club, a China-UK professionals’ network that she has run for 30 years. H-J spoke in mandarin and English and was referred to with her Chinese name, 童海珍.
The student’s mother, a lawyer who spent a year in the UK on a scholarship scheme in 2009 said,
“Guess where we saw you! This is the news board of her school. She was very excited to see you, took a photograph of the news board and introduced you to her classmates and teachers. She asked me to contact you and let you know the good news.”
You can see the interview here:
H-J was one of three people from the UK invited to talk about her experience of China and its development over recent decades. Other interviews for CCTV from the UK were conducted with Stephen Perry, former Chair of the 48 Group and Martin Jacques, author of ‘When China Rules the World.’ China specialists from other countries were also invited to give interviews.
Engage with China 